A Homily for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

+ If there is a constant refrain throughout the Rule of St Benedict, is it that those who exercise authority in monasteries are stewards, not owners or proprietors, of all that has been placed in their care. “The abbot must not disturb the flock committed to him, nor by an excuse of arbitrary authority ordain anything unjustly; but let him always consider that he will have to render God an account of all his judgments and deeds” chapter 63 teaches. Chapter 31 enjoins the Cellarer to “take the greatest care of the sick, of children, of guests and the poor, knowing without doubt that he will have to render an account for all of these on the Day of Judgement.” And thus the Rule continues warning Priors and Deans also about the snare of pride and the danger of thinking of ourselves as anything more than humble stewards of great responsibilities placed into merely human hands.
 
That is not to deny that God gives the grace of office to those to whom He calls to responsibility in monasteries or indeed at any level in His Church. But it most certainly is to insist that those who are so called realise that such responsibility is not a career achievement or ‘promotion’ in which they should bask in a glow of egoistical self-content, but that it is rather a mandate to serve God with ever more diligence, fervour and zeal, and in rightful fear of Him, for His glory and for the salvation of the souls entrusted to their care. For we must all answer to Almighty God for everything that is entrusted to us: our life, the gifts we have been given, the children we bring into the world, the souls placed under our responsibility in any form of monastic governance or pastoral ministry.
 
That the Church has seen and suffered from many unjust stewards amongst her officials throughout her history is no secret. Nor is it any secret that she still does so today. Unfortunately, it remains true that “the [ecclesiastical] sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light”—one only has to recall how the simplicity and humility of dear Pope Benedict XVI, who sought only to cooperate with the truth, was abused by the wolves in shepherd’s clothing who menaced him unceasingly.
 
And yet, in the Gospel of this Holy Mass does not Our Lord seem to praise these wily serpents? “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon,” He says, surely?
 
Here we need to read further in St Luke’s Gospel, for this pericope ends with the clear teaching that “You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Lk 16:13) “Mammon”, of course, is, as St Jerome reminded us at Matins, not just riches, but riches (or power or authority or anything else that is good) that have been obtained unjustly—through fraud, through connivance and politicking, through narcissistic ambition, etc. We cannot worship God as well as ourselves, our ambitions and our lust for power over others, no matter how wise we are as sons of this world.
 
There is much to ponder here, especially in the exercise of authority in the Church—authority which should in fact be the unswerving service of the Truth under God. Priests and prelates have often obtained wealthy and influential benefices through nepotism, politicking and trading promises. If we are to believe what we are told about the so-called “St Gallen mafia”, it seems that even the papacy in our own day can be procured by the manoeuvres of maverick men called to high office.
 
Of course, clergy do not have an exclusive claim to vice or corruption (even if their corruption is infinitely more scandalous and indeed sacrilegious): they are not the only unjust stewards of the goods placed into their hands—the first good amongst which must rank our own souls, of which we shall all be called to account. Kind David obtained the wife of Uriah the Hittite by plotting murder. Monarchs and their mistresses are matter of fact in the pages of history, just as adultery and divorce are and other unspeakable evils seem to be so in our own days.
 
If any of this teaching is too subtle for us, in her maternal wisdom Holy Mother Church addresses the crystal-clear words of St Paul to us in the Epistle of this Mass: “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.” If it is helpful we can turn to the fifth chapter of his Letter to the Galatians for more explicit detail (vv. 16-23), however the point is clear. Our lusts, including those for wealth and possessions and power and preference are not of God, no matter how subtly we disguise them. Kind David was fortunate: that the Prophet Nathan called him to repentance. Through her Sacred Liturgy, Holy Mother Church calls each of us to the same contrition and conversion this morning—most particularly if our stewardship of the goods and people entrusted to our care has been dishonest.
 
“Grant to us, O Lord, we beseech Thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we who cannot exist without Thee, may be able to live according to Thy will,” the Church prays in the Collect of this Mass. May our “Amen,” uttered in our every deed and word, enable us to be ever more faithful stewards of the many gifts we have been given. For that grace in ourselves and for others, let us pray in this Holy Mass. +